Samui Declared Disaster Area

[The Vulcan]

Bangkok Post http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?ac...w_post&f=30

By Supapong Chaolan and Nucharee Rakrun

Bangkok Post

The tourist mecca of Koh Samui was officially declared a disaster zone on Thursday after two days and a night of heavy rain inundated the Gulf of Thailand island and grounded all air service.

More than 1,000 tourists were left stranded at Samui airport as torrential rain battered the resort island and other parts of the South. The bad weather grounded planes on Koh Samui and at Surat Thani airport on the mainland.

Tourists and local residents struggled to return to hotels and homes along roads submerged under deep floodwater.

The air force was called in to help.

"We had to use our six-wheel trucks to help them. Otherwise they could not have returned to their hotels and homes on such flooded roads," said Flight Lieutenant Surapong Sarakul.

Surat Thani governor Winai Buapradit declared six tambons and 11 villages on the island disaster zones.

Soldiers were assigned to help people carry their belongings out of flooded areas.

Samui airport was turned into a temporary shelter for stranded tourists as Bangkok Airways, which has a monopoly on all flights in and out of Samui airport, cancelled all its 72 flights yesterday because of the weather.

A One-Two-Go airliner crashed while trying to land during bad weather at Phuket airport less than two months ago, killing 90 people on board, mostly foreign tourists.

Some tour operators did not appreciate the safety precautions being taken by Bangkok Airways.

"The company has not done the right thing," complained a frustrated tour operator on Koh Samui.

"It could have solved the problem by landing their planes on the mainland in Surat Thani province so we could transport people here by ferry and boat."

The island has suffered severe floods since Wednesday night when heavy rain fell across much of the South. After a brief lull, monsoon storms continued to slam the island late yesterday afternoon, hampering efforts to drain water from flooded areas.

Flood waters rose quickly to reach one metre deep in areas of Talad Dow, Talad Laemdin and Chaweng beach, said Koh Samui district chief Adisorn Kamnerdsi.

Chaweng beach road is a seaside thoroughfare often crowded with tourists and is regarded as a key part of the island's business zone.

Officials closed some sections of the main road around the island because of the flooding and at least 10 schools were also forced to close.

Mr Adisorn said local authorities would be able to bring the flooding under control if the rain stopped soon.

However, the Meteorological Department said heavy rain, caused by a low pressure front, would continue to fall across the South for the next two days.

Apart from Koh Samui, floods crippled movement in four districts in Surat Thani and seven districts in nearby Nakhon Si Thammarat province, affecting thousands of villagers.

Nakhon Si Thammarat was hit particularly hard, with over 24 centimetres of rain yesterday, officials said, and over 30,000 people were affected by the floods.

About 20 families in tambon Pakpoon of Muang district were forced to evacuate their homes, Nakhon Si Thammarat's disaster prevention and mitigation unit reported.

Provincial officials were also closely monitoring coastal erosion in tambon Laem Talumphuk in Pak Phanang district where strong waves were pounding the coastline and threatening to destroy some fishing communities.

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Earlier story:

The tourist mecca of Koh Samui was officially declared a disaster zone on Thursday after two days and a night of heavy rain inundated the Gulf of Thailand island and grounded all air service.

The rain caused floods in several locations around the island. The water level on the main road was 30 centimetres this afternoon.

Hundreds of tourists were left stranded as weather conditions prevented aircrafts from taking off since late Wednesday.

Authorities were trying to pump water into rivers to alleviate the problem and prevent further flooding if rain comes again. Heavy rain is forecast in and along the Gulf tonight and tomorrow.

Surat Thani provincial office sent 170 soldiers to the island to assist locals and tourists.

[sbk]

already covered here and here.

Lets try to keep the number of threads covering the same topic to a minimum please. It keeps the information consolidated

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